[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 111 (Wednesday, July 22, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H8558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HEALTH CARE DEBATE--QUOTES TO REMEMBER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. There's been an awful lot of misinformation 
about the Democrat health care proposal, Mr. Speaker, and so I would 
like to take just a couple of minutes tonight to talk to my colleagues 
about what's really happening and what will happen if this bill becomes 
law.
  According to the Lewin Group, there will be 114 million Americans who 
could lose their current coverage under the bill according to this 
organization. 4.7 million is the number of the jobs that could be lost 
as a result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health 
care insurance coverage according to a model developed by the Council 
of Economic Advisors; $818 billion in total new taxes on individuals 
who cannot afford health care coverage and employers who cannot afford 
to provide coverage that meet the Federal bureaucrat standards; $1.28 
trillion in new Federal spending in the next 10 years, but some believe 
it will be as much as $3 trillion. And then there are 33 entitlement 
programs the bill creates, expands, or extends in an increase from 
where we are right now.
  This is the organizational chart of the health care plan the 
Democrats are proposing. The white spots are new agencies that will be 
created or will be added to the plan, and it's going to be a real maze 
for Americans to go through in order to get health care. It will 
result, in my opinion, in most people's opinions who study this, in 
rationing of health care and additional cost to the taxpayers of this 
country to the tune of between $1 trillion and $3 trillion over a 
decade.
  Now, I just want to quote some of the things that have been said by 
our leaders over the past few days about this plan.
  Yesterday, President Obama, when he was talking about this, said that 
this bill will not add to the deficit. He said: I will not sign a bill 
that adds to the deficit. Period. That is a direct quote from the 
President yesterday.
  According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House bill, this 
bill, will add $239 billion to the deficit. So either the Congressional 
Budget Office or the President is wrong because it is going to add to 
the deficit, according to CBO.
  Representative Charlie Rangel, one of my good friends here in the 
Congress, was commenting on President Obama and Speaker Pelosi by 
saying he thought they were moving too fast. He was overheard to say 
yesterday or day before yesterday: No one wants to tell the Speaker 
that she's moving too fast and they darn sure don't want to tell the 
President. He was on his way to a closed door meeting about this 
because there is an awful lot of concern about this bill, even among 
Democrats.
  Speaker Pelosi, in a front page interview in USA Today, said: Many 
Members think that there's more to be squeezed from the hospitals, the 
pharmaceutical companies and the docs. Squeeze them. And I hope all of 
those institutions are listening.
  Joe Biden, the Vice President, said: We're going to go bankrupt as a 
Nation, he warned at an event in Virginia last week. He continued: 
People, when I say that, look at me and say, What are you talking 
about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from 
going bankrupt? And he says, yes, we do have to spend more money to 
keep from going bankrupt.

                              {time}  1815

  Now that's something that is new to me. I have never heard that you 
can spend your way out of bankruptcy. And the White House Chief of 
Staff, Rahm Emanuel, told the New York Times that Obama intends to use 
tonight's press conference, that is going to happen this evening, as a 
``6-month report card,'' and he is going to talk to the American people 
about ``how we've rescued the economy from the worst recession'' and 
that we're moving forward with our legislative agenda.
  Now if they've rescued us from the worst recession, I'd like to know 
how we're going to explain to the American people that we are very 
rapidly approaching 10 percent unemployment when just a month or so ago 
they said it wouldn't go above 8 percent, and how when they said they 
weren't going to spend us into the red anymore, and we're looking at 
trillions of dollars of additional spending. So tonight I hope 
everybody watches the President and listens to him. But I hope they ask 
themselves, are things better today than they were 6 months ago, when 
you took office, or are they worse? Because he's going to tell you 
everything is coming up roses.

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